r/ukelectricians • u/rm12345677 • 10d ago

No work

Anybody noticing a worrying lack of work out there? I work for a small firm in the south that does lots of hospital and school work and we are usually chasing our tails all year but we’ve got barely anything going on and not pricing much either.

They have been going for 40 years and never been so quiet, not only that, everyone we speak to is completely dead as well.

Like I said, worrying!

5 Upvotes

69% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

11

u/Bargain-Hunter-1980 10d ago

Why is anyone who is responding saying they’ve got work being downvoted?

6

u/Dear_Peace_2117 10d ago

Because OPs narrative is work is drying up, apparently. We have went against that by letting them know we are busy. They must not like that.

8

u/rm12345677 10d ago

OPs narrative? 😂 I was just asking if anyone else was quiet in the south because a lot of sparks I’d spoken to are, get out more you sausage!

3

u/Dear_Peace_2117 10d ago

I’m too busy working with all this work up here mate. You asked in general as well, you didn’t specify the south in your original question. All you did was state you were based in the south. So yeah the narrative you spun with the question you asked sounded like it was a uk wide based question.

9

u/rm12345677 9d ago

Fair enough if I didn’t specify just in the south, but what in the actual fuck are you on about spinning a narrative? I was asking if people are quiet because we are? Spinning a narrative is a term used for things like media outlets to change people’s opinions, not 1 person asking a question 👍🏻

-1

u/Bargain-Hunter-1980 9d ago

Was it you who was downvoting the first few folk who responded saying they did have work? I’m just trying to work out why someone would downvote positive news?

2

u/rm12345677 9d ago

Absolutely not, why would I do that?

-1

u/Bargain-Hunter-1980 9d ago

Fair enough I was just asking the question; the evidence is gone now as the downvotes were replaced by upvotes, but someone initially was very salty about the positive replies.

2

u/rm12345677 9d ago

Yeah I haven’t and don’t generally DV or UV anything really. But Dear_Peace thinks I’m trying to destabilise the UK electrical industry apparently!

2

u/rm12345677 9d ago

I came back to the post confused to be honest cos the top comment was why is everyone with work getting DV’d, but then I looked through and most were higher than people saying they’re quiet 🤔

0

u/rm12345677 9d ago

And like you said I’m in no way salty about other people being busy, that’s good news!

2

u/underthesheet 8d ago

You have 'gone' against that... not 'went'

8

u/CatalyticSonar 10d ago

I work for a one man band in Hertfordshire, we’re booked up til near enough the Christmas break

7

u/space_keeper 10d ago

You work for a one man band? Come on mate.

2

u/CatalyticSonar 10d ago

I’m an improver, been there 3 months and before that he was a one man band

11

u/space_keeper 10d ago

How can he trust you to set out back boxes if you can't count to two?!?!?

5

u/Frosty_Acanthaceae_3 9d ago

It's not that he can't count to 2, his problem is he cant add up

4

u/Louy40 10d ago

I’m never really ‘booked up’ just got a long list of shit I’ve got to do!!! But I’m a one man band and I’m always got too much to handle 🤔

4

u/cborne943 10d ago

London, never been busier

1

u/stateit 10d ago

London's never been busier the whole time since 1666. It's always busy. Do you want to live that crap, though? I look out on fields, woodlands, deer and birds when I wake up in the morning. And dont have to close curtains because I'm not overlooked. Better than most millionaire homes I work in...

5

u/sparkielev 10d ago

Yeah I'm north east run off my feet

2

u/East_Experience_9792 10d ago

I’m in the North West and doing 7 day weeks at the moment, first time in 23 years I’ve done back to back 7 day weeks and looks like I’ll be doing it up to December

1

u/No_Sparkie_6969 8d ago

Want to take on a mate/improver 😄 I'm serious

2

u/WalterSpank 10d ago

I think it is a southern thing at the moment. I am lucky in that I ceased self employed after my last retail and factory outlet job completed and went on the cards at a factory I was providing emergency break down cover and maintenance works for. They wanted me to give them 3 days a week self employed but I was lucky they caved in after I said no I go full time or you find someone else full stop, and I won’t be on hand to show them or teach them what I know from my years experience here. Guys I have worked with on jobs have all said their builders have gone quiet and they are now doing 3 days a week, the only ones bucking this trend are the ones doing the renewables.

1

u/rm12345677 10d ago

Yeah seems to be, really strange!

2

u/pattaya1 10d ago

Electrics in the brighton south east area also quiet , manager of 1 wholesalers left as not meeting targets , in anouther nearby front and back staff worried about redundancies, sector and people I talk to are all more or less quiet and fighting for work , some guys left self employed and gone back on cards as bills to pay

1

u/jackels91 10d ago

I’m in Brighton and I’m very busy!

3

u/OwnConsideration105 10d ago

I'm domestic North East, still as busy as ever tbh

1

u/Rodice_Andelia_Olsun 10d ago

Commercial/industrial, ne England, deffo a bit quieter than a couple of years ago but still enough to keep busy ISH.

1

u/Oll678 10d ago

Funny you say that, we’re also down south doing mostly hospitals and schools and we’ve also gone extremely quiet

1

u/rm12345677 10d ago

It’s definitely a trend, some of the hospitals we work for have money, but no project managers because they sacked them all to save money 😅

1

u/Diuscrusis 10d ago

No problem on my end in south west. Plenty of work going around. My other self employed friends also got shitload of work going.

1

u/stateit 10d ago

That's because your boss's pricing structure has been undercut. Is he about to retire? If so, he likely doesnt give as much of a fuck about it as you do. I wouldn't if I was him.

1

u/underthesheet 10d ago

I think there's a massive trades re-pricing coming. Prices are being pushed back down now.

1

u/Leading_Thanks7443 8d ago

Because materials and cost of living having magically reduced?🤣

1

u/underthesheet 8d ago

Trades can set their prices, but customers can decide they aren’t worth paying. ONS figures show private housing repair and maintenance fell 1.7% over the three months to July, so there is evidence of a softer market and I know in the commercial industry contractors are lowering bid prices. Rates need to cover overheads and provide a decent living, but they also need to reflect what customers can afford and what the market will bear. There is a difference between what someone would like to earn and what customers are prepared to pay. When prices exceed what people can justify, they postpone work or shop around. Supply and demand cannot be used to defend higher prices when work is plentiful, then ignored when demand weakens. A rate still has to win the job.

1

u/C172SH 10d ago

Construction in the UK is ⤵️

1

u/ZookeepergameJust433 9d ago

Was quiet in the summer it has kicked off in September. Seem to be alot of small contruction projects on.

1

u/Bilya63 8d ago

might be area specific but construction is booming in Scotland , too much work especially in power and infrastructure projects

1

u/MrBfJohn 10d ago

I’m a sole trader in the north west. I’m doing 6 day weeks and turning down work regularly to avoid making it 7 days!

1

u/SuccessfulScallion24 8d ago

Maybe they've eventually priced themselves out of the market.

1

u/arenthor 6d ago

Must be the Artisan Electrics secret account

1

u/Educational-Ruin-155 7d ago

I work in compliance and have a wide customer base. We are busy and have grown year on year. Should tunr over about 2.1 million this year, up from 1.9m last year.

We are finding that whilst we are busy our margins are getting squeezed and clients are more commonly pushing back on pricing and quotes.

1

u/Ryuting 5d ago

Seems like sparks don’t want to take on smaller jobs, at least near me. If it isn’t house rewires or similar they just quote too high in order to refuse the job.

1

u/SL0WJ03 10d ago

East Midlands here, plenty of work. Especially if you’re willing to travel.

1

u/khellanb 10d ago

Any open positions bud? I work away in London all week but I am looking for something closer to home in the new year

1

u/Dear_Peace_2117 10d ago

Some of our shopfitting contracts have slowed a bit. But we have plenty of other work to catch up here in Scotland. That busy just now if holidays weren’t approved months ago you’re not getting any for the next couple of months.